Aztecs face LSU in NCAA's first round

The SDSU women's basketball team watches the NCAA tournament selection on Monday, March 12, 2012. The Aztecs will take on LSU on March 18th in Baton Rouge, LA. From left are Courtney Clements, Melissa Sweat, Malia Nahinu, and Kalena Tutt.

K.C. Alfred

The SDSU women's basketball team watches the NCAA tournament selection on Monday, March 12, 2012. The Aztecs will take on LSU on March 18th in Baton Rouge, LA. From left are Courtney Clements, Melissa Sweat, Malia Nahinu, and Kalena Tutt.

The SDSU women's basketball team watches the NCAA tournament selection on Monday, March 12, 2012. The Aztecs will take on LSU on March 18th in Baton Rouge, LA. From left are Courtney Clements, Melissa Sweat, Malia Nahinu, and Kalena Tutt. (K.C. Alfred)

San Diego State’s women’s basketball team is heading to Cajun Country, Baton Rouge, to play the LSU Lady Tigers in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament.

But don’t tell Aztecs head coach Beth Burns it’s a huge disadvantage to be heading all the way to the Bayou.

“Would I have rather gone to a site where both teams are neutral, of course I would have,” the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year said. “But we’re dancin.’ We’d go to the moon. We have an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament.”

The Aztecs (25-6), were given the 12th seed in the Kingston, R.I. Regional. They’ll play No. 5 seed, LSU (22-10), at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. (PT) in the Baton Rouge sub-regional.

When the Aztecs learned their fate, they jumped for joy in the Fowler Athletics Center Auditorium, where they were joined by friends, family and fans. The first video they saw was LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell holding her newborn baby girl, Justice Simone Fargas, born last Tuesday morning to her and her longtime boyfriend, former Oakland Raider Justin Fargas. The former UCLA head coach is in her first year as the LSU head coach, and Burns knows her well from when they faced each other on the West Coast. Caldwell won national championships as a player and an assistant coach at Tennessee with Pat Summitt.

“She gets after it,” Burns said of Caldwell. “She’s a defensive coach, and we’re going to have to be ready.”

LSU has a tremendous record in the NCAA Tournament, especially at Baton Rouge, where the Lady Tigers are 13-2 (38-20 overall in NCAA play). They advanced to five straight Final Fours from 2004-2008. But the Aztecs may have gotten a huge break over the weekend when LSU lost its star player, LaSondra Barrett, the team’s leading scorer (12.5 points a game) and rebounder with 6.9 boards a game. The 6-2 senior and All-SEC, first-team forward was injured with 14:18 left in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship game with Tennessee when she was knocked unconscious. Barrett had fallen to the floor after taking a shot. Tennessee’s Glory Johnson then accidentally hit Barrett in the temple with her knee, sending Barrett back to the floor. She was taken off on a stretcher and hospitalized. Her status Sunday’s first-round NCAA game is uncertain. Tennessee beat LSU, 70-58 to win the SEC Tournament.

Only one other Lady Tiger scores in double figures, and that’s junior guard Adrienne Webb, who averaged 10.1 points and 3.6 rebounds a game. Senior forward Courtney Jones averages 8.9 points a game and 5.8 rebounds. Like the Aztecs, LSU has a deep bench, with 12 players scoring in all. But they’ll be diminished if Barrett can’t go.

“We’re excited,” Mountain West Conference Player of the Year Courtney Clements said. “We have a great opportunity here. We’re excited to be playing anyone in the NCAA Tournament. It didn’t matter who it was because we think our chances are very good, and now we have to go out and compete.”

Said Chelsea Hopkins, who made all-conference first-team with Clements and was the MVP of the MWC Tournament: “We’re excited. We’re confident in the direction of the program and really happy to be in the NCAA Tournament. We just want our success to continue.”

Hopkins said the team, the Mountain West Conference regular-season champions, learned some valuable lessons in winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship Saturday by defeating New Mexico.

“I think we learned how resilient we are,” Hopkins said. “We have a lot of youth and a lot of inexperience, and a lot of them hadn’t had the opportunity to be on such a big stage as a conference tournament. To see them come into the game and step up with key plays from start to finish was just amazing to me as the team’s leader. Most importantly it showed what kind of team we are. We’re very deep and we can compete and battle with the best of them. I’m really excited to see how we do now.”